Families of attack victims sue bin Laden, cohorts

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - While the hunt for Osama bin Laden continues in Afghanistan, the families of at least two victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks are suing him and his cohorts to tap into millions of dollars in frozen terrorist assets.

"It's a way to fight back," said Jim Beasley, whose Philadelphia law firm filed both cases in federal court in New York.

Some legal experts, though, question the timing of the litigation and its odds of success.

One of the wrongful-death suits was filed on Nov. 15 by the estate of business analyst George Eric Smith. Another was filed in October on behalf of an unidentified widow. Both men died in the World Trade Center attack.

The lawsuits name bin Laden, his al-Qaida terrorist network and the Taliban.

The U.S. Treasury Department has said that more than $56 million in Taliban and al-Qaida assets has been frozen here and abroad.

Beasley said the lawsuits give families a sense that they are doing something to honor and remember lost loved ones.

Burt Neuborne, a New York University law professor, said the key issue in such lawsuits would be proving that the named parties were actually responsible for the deaths at the trade center.

"His strongest challenge is factual, not legal," said Neuborne, who represented Holocaust victims in a successful bid to win reparations. "We're a long way from knowing if the facts here are going to justify civil litigation."

James Kreindler, a New York lawyer, said that he supports litigation against bin Laden and his alleged accomplices but that it should wait until all of those responsible for the attacks are identified. "There's still a lot we don't know," he said.

"There's plenty of time to sue and there's no reason to start the suit yet, particularly while our soldiers are chasing after bin Laden," said Kreindler, whose firm represents about 50 families of trade center victims.

Carlton Carl, a spokesman for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, said the two lawsuits did not breach a moratorium his group has called for on Sept. 11-related litigation, noting that the ban was aimed at cases brought against airlines and related entities. People who want to participate in the federal victims fund cannot bring such claims.

However, the legislation does not explicitly bar people who want to collect from the fund from suing the terrorists.

Beasley said of the lawsuits' chances of success: "I think we've got a good shot."

There is precedent for collecting frozen assets in terrorism cases.

More than $150 million in frozen assets of Iran have been claimed by eight American terror victims or their families since passage of a 1996 law that permitted lawsuits against countries identified by the State Department as sponsors of international terrorism.